


Not Your Girl

by rsadelle



Category: Bandom, Empires, The Academy Is...
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Always the Opposite Sex, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-23
Updated: 2011-03-23
Packaged: 2017-10-26 13:23:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/283674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike knows Tom Conrad from around school and shows and stuff. He's kind of hot. She'd consider hooking up with him, except he and Bill have some kind of dude conflict thing going on and she's not getting anywhere near that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Your Girl

**Author's Note:**

> This is not really a story. Like so many other things I've written, I really wanted to write the beginning and the end, and not so much of the middle. To be a real story, this would need a lot more of Tom and Mike spending time in the middle. This is a high school AU, and I had fun incorporating everything I know about Mike's high school activities into it.

Mike hates the first day of school. It's not the school part - she doesn't mind school - it's the part where new teachers take attendance. When they call for Michelle Carden, she has to say, "It's Mike," and every year there's some new teacher who tries to ask her concerned questions about her gender identity and sexuality. Mike has no issue with being a girl. She's just not a Michelle.

*

Mike knows Tom Conrad from around school and shows and stuff. He's kind of hot. She'd consider hooking up with him, except he and Bill have some kind of dude conflict thing going on and she's not getting anywhere near that.

But somehow this year they're getting along again. Mike sees Tom all over the place anyway, from swim meets to band practice. The swim meets are easier to explain - he's on yearbook, so he's taking pictures all over school all the time - but the only reason he would be at band practice is if Bill let him come.

*

Mr. Harris has a chessboard set up on a spare table at the back of his classroom. Mike hasn't gotten to play in a while, but it's set up ready for a game when she comes into class one day. Before she leaves to go to her next class, she moves one of the white pawns.

Games on the board can last for weeks, and everyone knows not to interfere. Mike likes it, thinking ahead and not knowing who she's playing.

Mr. Harris is also their advisor for debate, so she sees the board a lot and gets to think her moves out ahead of time.

*

There's some big art show thing at the end of the semester with stuff from everyone who takes art. Mike wouldn't go if it were up to her, but her brother has something in it, so her parents make her. It's not so bad; Bill's sister has some of her stuff in it too, so he and Adam will be there.

Mike meets up with them when she gets there and they wander around together, reading the mostly stupid and pretentious art kid "artist statements" with each piece.

If she'd thought about it, Mike might have known that Tom would be there with some of his photos on the wall, but she doesn't really put it together until she's looking at a sign on the wall that says,

> Not Your Girl (Series)  
> Tom Conrad  
> Artist Statement: She's not your girl. (Or mine.)

The first picture is a sepia-toned photo of the chessboard in Mr. Harris's classroom. The white queen, just off-center, is the focus, with Mr. Harris fuzzy in the background. Mike recognizes the layout as the game she's been playing. The card under it says, "Nobody's Pawn."

The second one, "Reach for Glory," is her hand arching out of the water, her slightly tanned skin dull against the turquoise of the water. From the angle, he had to have been practically lying down on the edge of the pool.

The third one is a sheaf of paper, her notes from debate, her fingers holding them down just on the edge of the photo. "Speak the Truth."

The fourth is her guitar, leaning up against the couch in Bill's basement. She's in the background, leaning over Adam, fixing the tuning on his bass. "Six-String."

The fifth one is outside a club somewhere. He's caught her in silhouette, the light behind her outlining just the shape of her body, her hand with a cigarette off to the side, the smoke curling up. "Out of Darkness."

The last one is in the studio again. She has her guitar slung across her body, head thrown back, mouth open, eyes closed as she laughs. "Light."

"Do you like them?" Tom asks from behind her.

"You did a whole series of pictures of me."

"I think you're interesting."

Mike turns around to look at him. "A normal guy would have just asked me out."

Tom cocks his head and looks at her for a moment. "Want to go to Prom?" Prom is five months away.

Mike nods. "I might wear a tux."

"Okay. Do you want me to wear a dress?"

Mike grins at him. "I'll think about it. You should come with us to IHOP later."

Tom smiles back at her, the wide grin no one ever seems to get a picture of. "Yeah. Awesome."


End file.
